The Most Influencial Person in my Life

The director of my youth band, Mr. Ward (he will always be "mister" to me). We weren't "just a band," we were a family, and he was our parent. He took a personal interest in every musician. Many of us came from struggling families. He would treat us to dinner if he knew we didn't get enough food at home. He sheltered some who had abusive parents. He managed to get one musician out of a gang and protected him from retaliation. When my dad had a massive heart attack, he sat with me after rehearsal, knowing I was bottling my emotions (he could "hear it in my music") and he hugged me as I finally broke down in sobs, unable to cry at home, since I was supposed to be the strong one. He knew I love to write, so he pedantically corrected my bad grammar. He bought me my first martini, and he taught me to drink it with refinement. He saw the way I bashfully gazed at another musician, and slyly he would make us sit next to one another on the band bus, or take the same car on long trips. He nudged, we moved, and years later I married that boy. We invited Mr. Ward and other musicians from our youth band days to the wedding. Actually, when I told him I was engaged, he tried his damnedest to talk me out of it. Then at the wedding, he said he did that to test me. He really wanted me to be sure of this big step, because he wanted my greatest happiness. He taught me, not just about music, but about life, how to "step out on the right foot" and "keep playing no matter what." I lost my grandparents at a young age, so he became my grandpa. Yet sadly...I lost him too a few years ago. I hope he's somewhere, watching, happy to see that I'm still playing music, still married, and I still toast a martini to him on his birthday.

42

"The answer to the ultimate question…of life, the universe, and everything is…42."
In Japanese, 4 is shi, 2 is ni. Shini means death. (shinigami=death god)

Japanese also say 4 as yon. While Yonni means nothing (I know) in Japanese, it does mean vagina in Sanskrit.
 
So the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, is both death...and the source of life, the vagina. Life comes from the vagina only to be later greeted by death.

Let your mind be blown by the awesomeness of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.